


Gay Hands

by onemechanicalalligator



Series: Brad & Poppy [3]
Category: Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet (TV)
Genre: Coming Out, Ficlet, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26583364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onemechanicalalligator/pseuds/onemechanicalalligator
Summary: Brad and Poppy carpool to work.
Relationships: Brad Bakshi & Poppy Li
Series: Brad & Poppy [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933696
Comments: 17
Kudos: 53





	Gay Hands

When the virus seems to be finally getting under control, Mythic Quest opens the office again. Everyone has to wear a mask, and the desks are six feet apart, but besides that it’s basically back to normal. As normal as things can be, anyway. Poppy is happy to be back after months and months wasting away in her apartment. _This_ feels like coming home.

Brad finds out Poppy doesn’t have a car, and he starts driving her to and from work every day. To their coworkers, it makes sense: it saves the company money on Ubers, something that obviously pleases Brad. To Poppy, it’s a sign of their friendship, the secret one that Brad has implied he wants her to keep quiet about in the workplace.

Actually, that’s not quite true -- he’s told her a bunch of times that she is welcome to tell their coworkers whatever she wants, because they’ll never believe her. And she knows that he’s right.

It’s nice getting to spend that time together, to keep this going even now that they’re not both breaking down over video calls every other day and then lifting each other back up (or at least keeping each other afloat in their sea of misery). She’s glad to know that they can continue their friendship, continue to get to know each other better. She starts to notice Brad more at work.

Brad is a nice dresser. Poppy doesn’t pay a lot of attention to his wardrobe in general. She’s obviously taken note of the fact that he likes to wear expensive button-down shirts with sweaters over them, and it’s kind of his _thing._ He has a new _thing,_ though, which she puts together a few days after they go back to work. Brad has a mask to match each button down shirt, creating a coordinating outfit every single day.

“Where do you get your masks?” she asks one day from the passenger seat on the way to work, trying to sound casual and not like she’s interrogating him. 

He glances at her in his peripheral vision while still facing forward, and she thinks she sees him briefly roll his eyes.

“The person who tailors my clothes makes them,” he says. “Where the hell else would they come from?”

“I don’t know,” Poppy says sheepishly. “I thought you might...make...them?” Her voice gets higher until the last word is a squeak.

“Poppy, do you think I maintain a _money bin_ just so I can go ahead and _sew my own masks?”_

“I guess that’s a fair point,” she laughs. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Anyway, I like how they all match.”

“They _coordinate.”_

“Coordinate, whatever,” she says. “You sound like one of those _Queer Eye_ guys.”

“Yeah, I guess that tracks,” Brad says nonchalantly. “Have you had breakfast?”

“Have I--?” Poppy starts to say, and then stops. “Wait a minute. What do you mean, _that tracks?”_

“What do you think it means?” he asks, sounding disinterested.

“Are you saying you’re gay, Brad?” Poppy’s heart is beating a little faster. She can’t tell whether Brad is messing with her. She has that problem kind of a lot.

“I don’t know, am I?” He hasn’t taken his eyes off the road.

“Brad!” Poppy whines. If she weren’t sitting in the car right now, she’d probably stamp her foot in frustration.

“What?” Brad asks calmly.

“Are you gay?” 

It comes out louder than she would have liked. She bites her lip.

“Isn’t that a rude question?” he asks, but she can see the smirk on his face. He’s _enjoying_ this.

“I’m allowed to ask it,” she says hotly, folding her arms across her chest. 

“And why’s that, Pop-Tarts?” They’ve reached the MQ parking garage. He turns the car off and gets out, then turns to face Poppy as she emerges from the passenger side. The rest of the garage is empty.

“Because _I’m_ gay!” As soon as she says it, she claps a hand over her mouth, her eyes open wide. It’s not that she cares if Brad knows, just that she’s never told anyone at work before, and she definitely didn’t intend to do it like this.

Brad just stares at her a second, a small smile on his face. 

“Oh,” he says. “Okay.” He curls his hands into fists and lifts them toward his chest as he starts to turn away from her.

“That’s _it?”_ she asks. “You’re _still_ not going to answer me? After all the…the talking, and the friendship, and all of that? You, Brad ‘Gay Hands’ Bakshi--” she gives him a pointed look, and he glances down at his hands, which are still against his chest “--won’t just tell me if you’re actually gay? After I just came out to you?”

Brad motions with his head for her to get back in the car, and she does. He sits down again in the driver’s seat.

“Look,” he says conspiratorially, and his voice reminds her of the time she tried to convince him she was three steps ahead of Ian’s plan. “I like to keep people guessing. I don’t want everyone to know personal shit about me. That’s not how I do things. I will tell you the truth, one time only, right here, right now. But only if you promise to tell me where the fuck _Brad ‘Gay Hands’ Bakshi_ came from.”

Poppy looks intently at him and nods.

“I’m only telling you this because you came out to me and now I kind of feel bad.” His voice is stern. “And I trust you to keep this between us. _This_ being the part where I feel bad,” he says raising an eyebrow at her, “and also the part where, yes, Poppy, I’m gay. Happy?”

Poppy smiles. “Yeah. Cool. Thanks for telling me.”

“You’re welcome,” Brad says. “Now about this ‘gay hands’ thing…”


End file.
